


in the palace of god

by hayashii



Category: Gintama
Genre: Character death (but not the main characters), Eventual Happy Ending, Gintoki is a god, Hijikata is a sacrifice offering to said god, M/M, Tragedy, government corruption(?)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-06-29 12:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19830124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hayashii/pseuds/hayashii
Summary: In the palace of god, red spider lilies grows out of the graves of the dead."In the language of flowers, it means, 'Never to meet again.'"________________________Hijikata Toshirou is chosen as the next offering to the merciless god on the mountain. Once he reaches the summit, he finds a god who is too human to be called "divine," and holds too many emotions to be called "merciless." He meets Sakata Gintoki.





	1. Chapter 1

[1]

Through gaps of sleep and the seams of the wooden palanquin, Hijikata Toshirou saw forest green lights filtering into the dark enclosed space. The bumpy transportation reminded him all too well of the place he was being sent off to. In his frustration and hopelessness, angry tears ran across to the side of his face. With his hands bound behind him, he was unable to wipe them away. Instead, he fell into another light, dreamless slumber.

Then with a hard bump and the jostling of the palanquin, the top of the compartment opened up, the afternoon sky shining down harshly on his eyes. Hijikata squinted, but then he felt the box tip, causing him to tumble out awkwardly, landing on his face.

“Mmph!” Hijikata yelled through the cloth that gagged his mouth, but the two palanquin bearers simply turned away, climbing back down the mountains. He strained his neck to watch the men disappear and then he let his head heavily fall back down.

 _Hopeless_ . Hijikata thought. _Is this how Mitsuba felt?_

“Another cute one.” Hijikata saw the shadow of a person towering over him, so he rolled from his side onto his back and looked up. It was a man with silver hair that reminded Hijikata of ashes that fell from the sky after a great fire, and scarlet eyes that were vibrant as an open knife wound. “Whoa, you look pretty scary, actually.”

Hijikata then proceeded to glare harder.

“Anyways, you’re hurt, aren’t you?” The man looked up at the sky scratching his neck, “Why do they only send the ones that are hurt…”

Then he bent down and picked Hijikata up like he weighed nothing, and slung him over his shoulder. And like that, the tribute entered the palace of god.

* * *

“Will you promise not to bite me, if I remove this?” The silver haired man pointed at the cloth that was gagging his mouth. Hijikata… nodded. They were sitting on a bench in a courtyard. They first entered the temple, then passed through a couple more large stone doors, then under an arch, and here they were: a place where warm sunlight touched upon the flourishing red spider lilies. In the background, there was a fountain that had water cascading down round steps. 

The man, while facing Hijikata, wrapped his arm around to the back of his head to undo the tight knot. The sleeves only brushed lightly against his shoulder. From where Hijikata was sitting, he was able to stare at the dip of the white kimono into the chest area. The skin there looked smooth and pale, just like the rest of the body. And at a glance, anyone could see the well defined pecs and muscles under that soft, unmarred skin. 

It was as if a marble statue had come to life and started moving around.

“Aha, they double knotted it.” He announced in triumph and pulled away. At that moment, Hijikata lunged and bit at a hand, causing the latter to yelp, “Ouch, you promised!”

“What are you going to do? Kill me? Sacrifice me to your god?” Hijikata sneered. “I’ll kill you instead.” The man only sighed deeper.

“Don’t bite me.” He warned again, and stood up to walk behind Hijikata. He made quick work of the ropes around the wrists. Then he came back to the front, taking an arm and rubbing gently at the wrist. They were red and bruised. There were pity in those red eyes.

Hijikata yanked away his arm and snapping, “Don’t touch me.”

The man raised his hands in front of him in a defensive gesture, “Alright, my bad.”

Hijikata hastily jumped to his feet and pointed out, “Why untie me? You know I could run away.”

“No.” The man said, looking up , “You don’t have to run away, you’re free to leave, if you want.”

“Huh?” And Hijikata watched with jaws slacked, as the man rose and walked towards an arch leading out of the courtyard. The pale blue hem of the kimono swished around his ankles like flowing river water. “Is this a trick?”

“No, it is not. You are free now, so feel free to leave. I don’t know when it started, but sacrifices started getting sent my way. But I never accepted any of them.”

And after a beat of realization, Hijikata dashed past the man, past the two solid doors, into the spacious entrance hall, then out the temple. And once his bare feet touched the dirt, he was greeted with the clearest blue sky, the rustle of the trees, and… the emptiness of it all, he finally gasped for breath, bent over with each hand on his knees.

Then he crumpled to the ground, head bowed to the surface. His wails of grief and pain spoke more than what words could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Once again I am posting this in the dead of the night (where I live). I've been stewing on this AU for like an year. But I finally whipped up the first chapter, please let me know if you like it, and feedback and criticism are HIGHLY encouraged. I don't have a second reader, so I always doubt the grammar/composition/quality of my fics. As always, I have the beginning and the ending, but never the middle. So it will take some time to be crafting a backstory and actually delivering the contents in an elegant style.


	2. Chapter 2

[2]

Grief racked his body with each violent sob. Through his watery vision, he saw the drops of tears falling from the tip of his nose. He thought about how everything had been in vain. 

_‘I don’t know when it started, but sacrifices started getting sent my way. But I never accepted any of them.’_ The moment Hijikata had been able to leave the temple, he had a strong feeling that the man was telling the truth. He could leave right now. But where?

Where did the other sacrifices go? Where was Mitsuba? Can he go back and see Kondo- _san_ and Sougo again? Is he allowed to?

After groveling on the ground for five minutes, he sat back up, and scrubbed his nose with the back of his sleeve. 

He asked himself in a hoarse voice, “What the hell do I do now?”

Hijikata sensed that the man was approaching again, but stopped a foot away.

“Did you get it all out of your system? Crying is healthy.” How casually he speaks, “Now you don’t have a place to go back to anymore, huh?”

Hijikata didn’t reply, but the reality was painfully obvious.

“C’mon. You could stay here for a while if you need to. You’ll be safe.” The man coaxed, and finally, Hijikata let himself be pulled up. He lightly jests, "I'll even give you a 50% discount on room and board. Do you like my western castle that's randomly in a Japanese mountain? I know it looks odd, I thought it was weird too but-"

“Who are you? Why should I trust you?” Hijikata demanded. He felt his blood simmer, seeing the man's smooth neutral face again. 

“I guess you need to learn about the other person before trusting them.” The man said. He sighed again - he sighed a lot. Hijikata saw his Adam’s apple bob as he hesitated to speak.

Then after a short moment of composing his thoughts, he finally said: “I am the god of this mountain. _Shiroyasha_ , is what you all have called me. But my true name is Sakata Gintoki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, that was short, but I wanted to end it on "lmao I'm the god." Whoops.
> 
> So a little character thing:  
> -Gintoki is old. Like, really, really old. By now he has mellowed out. At least in his early twenties, before the incident, he acts more like canon Gintoki (86% lazy idiot and 14% serious). But now he is like 12% lazy idiot and 88% sad.  
> -Hijikata is 20 years old. He is a prime thorny. A brat that gets angry (and emotional) too quickly. He's not the canon Hijikata that knows how to take care of himself and others, he needs someone to be his support.
> 
> That explains the ooc, thanks for reading as always!


	3. Chapter 3

Maybe he was disappointed to know that the god that he loathed his entire life was simply a young man living alone on the mountain. Looked harmless too. Like the white scruffy cat that lounged on the shingles of their roof, back in the village. How could such a person descend upon the village and slaughter everyone, as the prophecies have said?

Gintoki took advantage of Hijikata’s puzzled and tired state and gently guided him into the temple, then onto the second floor. He was shown a room that was furnished with a bed, a desk, and a dresser. Why did a fearsome god have such great hospitality? The thought lingered in the back of his head, but exhaustion quickly caught up before he could question more of the oddity of his situation. He fell onto the mattress, feeling his body sink in as his mind sink into a restless sleep.

He dreamt about a great fire, with gray ashes falling from the sky like snow. A tearstained farewell smile. And the darkness of a cramped space. When he rolled his body to escape the confinement, he rolled straight out of the bed, crashing onto the wooden floor. This was the second time he had landed with his face today.

Hijikata regained his composure and sat up. The room had a western design to it, especially with the heavy oak bed with the mattress, instead of the normal futon Hijikata had been accustomed to. The walls were a masonry made up of irregularly shaped stones and white mortar that filled the gaps around them. This was an aesthetic that Hijikata had never seen before.

“Who the hell built this place.” He muttered. 

* * *

The temple was not quite a temple. It was more like a castle. Hijikata meandered about the second floor and was able to see the courtyard from the windows of the halls. Red clusters of flowers down below accented the overall blueness of the castle.

The blue reminded Hijikata of Gintoki and went in search for him. He found the stairs that lead down to the first floor vestibule. From there, he went from door to door, looking for the deity. So far, he had found many rooms that had sofas, chairs, and books. Many, many books that were written in the western language. There were some familiar Japanese literature mixed in the shelves as well. He made his way back to the entrance where he finally found Gintoki.

“You woke up. Hungry?” He asked and Hijikata nodded.

Gintoki beckoned Hijikata into another one of the big doors, not the one that leads into the courtyard, but the one that lead into the dining hall.

“It has been a while since I cooked, so I hope it suits your taste.”

At the front of the long table, porcelain tableware and utensils were set across from each other.

“ _Sansai ryori_.” Hijikata mentioned upon looking at the food. They each sat down.

“What’s that.”

“It means ‘food made from mountain vegetables.’” Hijikata explained.

“Ah. We are in the mountain after all.”

After watching Gintoki take the first bite, Hijikata dug into his own plate of rice, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, radishes and chestnuts. He hadn’t eaten that morning, so he had been famished. The meal then went on without a single word exchanged.

Hijikata set down the plate and gulped down the water in the teacup. He finished with a content sigh.

“Thanks for the meal.”

Gintoki looked at Hijikata with an amused smile, “Say, what’s your name?”

“I haven’t told you, huh? Hijikata Toshirou.”

The smile dropped. Gintoki sucked in a gasp. Hijikata noticed an emotion flicker for a second in those half-lidded, dead fish eyes. Before questioning it, he suddenly remembered something, no, someone that he deemed was more important than his very own existence.

“Wait, you said you don’t accept any sacrifices, right?”

“Yea, that’s correct.”

“Then… Do you know of Mitsuba? Okita Mitsuba. 20 year old young woman, with hair this short,” He gestures by putting up his hand to his chin. He was hopeful that she left this place. Find a new life where she wouldn’t be married off to some rich asshole. Be happy. And hopefully, he could possibly catch up to her. “And she… was beautiful. Anyways - she was taken to be sacrificed before me, so…”

Hijikata felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach when Gintoki wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t meet his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment. 
> 
> AND ONE MORE THING!!! If you notice me using any words too many times, like "finally" or "suddenly," then please point them out! Thanks again, expect the next chapter soon.
> 
> (Ah I want to draw.)


	4. Chapter 4

[4]

“I don’t know who that is, I’m sorry.” Gintoki finally said. Hijikata stared into each of Gintoki’s eyes, looking for the slightest quiver, tremble, or the tell-tale signs of a lie. Like how Sougo would briefly glance away when he would lie about how he did not prank Hijikata for the third time that afternoon.

Upon discovering nothing, Hijikata sighed and sat back into his chair. He didn’t realize that he had stood up in the first place.

“It’s fine.”

“Really sorry-”

“Why are you apologizing.” Hijikata took another look at the self-proclaimed god before him. Sure, the thin flowy kimono, and the silver jewelry that adorned the neck, ears, arms and ankles really gave the man a celestial vibe, but without any of that, he looked human. He was probably another victim in the midst of all this corruption. “Even though you’re a ‘god,’ you really have been looking out for a shitty, faithless brat like me. Thank you.”

“Ah.” Tinge of red crept into Gintoki’s cheeks, “You’re welcome.”

“But,” Hijikata stood up, “I still have to look for Mitsuba, whichever mountain she got sent off to. I can’t just assume the worst. I need to find her. And together, we could finally get away from all of this.”

Gintoki gazes were downcast when he whispered, “Yea.”

“Once a sacrifice returns to the village, they kill them, saying that the god will now surely descend because the ‘food’ was not to their liking.” Hijikata shuddered, “I remember when I was just a kid, that lady - I forgot her name - came running back into the village. People were scared, so they grabbed her and killed her right there.”

Gintoki’s eyes widened a fraction upon hearing this information, then he closed his eyes and bowed his head, “I see.”

“And… I don’t intend to go back. It would only give… my father trouble.”

“A father? So you have a family…”

“No, I don’t. Not anymore, at least. And, I wouldn’t call Kondo- _san_ my ‘father’ to his face, but he had been most of my life.” Hijikata had a smile on his face as he said this, “We were just a rag-tag group of nobodies that were picked up by him. If there was a god, no offense to you, I thought it was him.”

* * *

J _ust give me a full day, then I will leave_.

Gintoki mulled over the words as he bit into an apple. The moon was a crescent shape, just like the last time a mortal was left on his door steps.

...

_She had delicately knelt on a woven fabric when he came out to greet her, long after the palanquin bearers left the temple. The season had changed from summer to fall, so it was expected that the village would send up another one of their kind to him. From his long experience of being the designated god, he also knew that the next one would arrive when the seasons turned from winter to spring._

_Her figure was reminiscent of a doe - slim, slender, with chestnut hair and big round eyes. They had no apprehension in them._

_“Are you the god of this mountain?” She then bowed her head to the ground, gracefully, as though it was an art, “It is an honor to offer myself for the sake of my people, I am Okita Mitsuba.”_

Gintoki tossed the core of the apple out the window.

* * *

“Are you really a god?” Hijikata asked. His back was turned toward Gintoki while he was scouring through the books for a potential map. Gintoki elected to sprawl out on the couch.

“Who knows.”

“C’mon, answer me seriously.”

“People have called me a god, so maybe I am.”

“But _are_ you?”

Gintoki glanced over. Hijikata was now on a ladder and plucking out books on the top shelf, “Those are all in German, they’ll be no use to you.”

“Oh.” Hijikata then turned to look at Gintoki, “Why are there foreign books here?”

“Another god brought them here.”

Hijikata rolled his eyes and hopped down from the ladder. “Fine, don’t answer. Can you read it though?”

“Of course.” 

He opened a book with fairy tales and pictures on each page, “Would you be able to read them to me some time?”

“Yea. But are you planning not to leave then?”

“No, I meant after I come back. With Mitsuba.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's obviously lying.


	5. Chapter 5

[5]

It was an hour before Hijikata’s departure. Gintoki had somehow convinced Hijikata to leave in the morning, because leaving at sunset would only be asking for trouble.

“Thanks.” Hijikata told Gintoki, gesturing to the clothes, and food he was packing into the knapsack.

“Yea, don’t mention it.”

 _I have to tell him_. Gintoki felt guilt overflow in his heart - he felt like he was about to drown in it.

Thirty minutes before the departure, Hijikata took a moment to enjoy the courtyard, he felt at peace there. Red spider lilies creeped him out as a kid, but here in the temple, they were beautiful and gave him a warm feeling.

_I have to tell him._

Ten minutes before leaving, Hijikata had finally found a map of the area, folded into a string bound book. Gintoki was surprised that the map even existed.

“You never took the time to look through this place?”

“No.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Almost two hundred years.”

Hijikata had an exasperated expression, “You really are keeping the charade up, huh?”

_I have to tell him._

A minute from saying goodbye, Hijikata stopped and turned at the entrance of the temple. Compared to temple, Gintoki looked small and lonely. Though it pained both of them to say their farewells, they had to. Because… 

“I have to find her.” Hijikata reasons, not only to Gintoki but to himself.

“Yea… I know.”

“Then… goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

...

And Hijikata barely turned and lifted his foot, when Gintoki yelled, “Wait!”

He whipped back around, “What?”

“I have to say something.”

“Hm?” Hijikata thought that even if Gintoki begged him to stay, he would have to be strong and reject the offer.

A minute passed by. Then, he finally took a deep breath and said:

“I lied to you about something.” Gintoki looked at his own bare feet. His hand habitually went to one of his silver bangles, and he shifted them from the middle of his forearm to his wrist. And then back up.

“About what? That you're not a god? I knew that from the start, idio-”

“Mitsuba.” His heart quickened.

"What about her?"

"She came here. I actually met her, but-"

"Why didn't you say something sooner? Then where-"

"Mitsuba is dead."

“... What?”

“I’m sorry, Hijikata-”

“Out of all the jokes you make...” Gintoki looked up at Hijikata’s face. He was smiling. He was putting a tremendous amount of effort into this one smile, “... This one is really terrible.”

Gintoki then pulled out of his sleeve a tsuge comb, made out of boxwood. It was flat, with a quarter moon shape. The comb teeth were perfectly straight, with gaps of a hair's width. It fitted perfectly into the palm of an adult's hand, just enough to hide it out of view and reveal it as a surprise. There were seven camellia flowers on the handle - Hijikata knew because he had counted them himself when he had turned it over and over in his hand. When his heart felt like it was about to burst with anticipation waiting for her to emerge from the dojo. And from his hands, to her's. He felt a cold dread run itself into his very core.

"Why do you have that?"

"Because... Mitsuba entrusted it to me. She said when she passes-"

"LIAR!" Hijikata bellowed, his voice thundering. "You're lying, it's all a lie!"

"Hijikata... I'm sorry," Gintoki shifted his eyes to the floor, "But-"

Hijikata turned around and ran. He ran and ran and ran until he couldn't see the temple. Until he couldn't run any longer. Until he couldn't hear Gintoki.

He finally stopped. Hijikata decided that he needed a break and sat down. _It's probably a lie,_ Hijikata tries to convince himself. But he knew that the only way for Mitsuba to part with that comb would be if she really...

Hijikata suddenly felt rage seething inside him. But, who was he angry at?

"I don't know." Hijikata whimpered.

_Whose fault was it?_

"I don't know."

_Why did it happen?_

"I..." Hijikata stood up. He turned to the tree he had been leaning on and rammed his fist into the bark. And again. And again. And again, until the skin ripped off and blood smeared around his knuckles. But this pain wasn't enough to mask the pain he was feeling in his heart.

He tried one more time when someone grabbed his arm back.

"Stop. She... wouldn't want to have seen you like this." Gintoki squeezed tightly.

Hijikata wrenched his arm away and growled, "What would you know?"

“She said she loved you from the bottom of her heart.”

“Shut up.”

“Everyday, she only thought about you. She-”

The memory from a spring day flashed before his eyes:

_"Toshirou... I have a confession." Mitsuba face reddened, "I like you. A lot."_

It felt like it was just yesterday.

“ _Shut up_. Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up shut up-” Hijikata slid down to the ground, face in his hands, “Shut… up…”


End file.
